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The music that we play
Samba Reggae
The Samba Reggae has its roots on Jamaica, around the year 1940. The rhythm is slow and relaxed, like the life on this island.
The origines of the reggae can be found in the Mento, a mix of african folclore with jazz, gospel and calopso.
The basics of the sound are formed with the typical combined play between the surdos and with the caja that plays the part of the
"reggae"-guitar, with various strokes against the beat. The melody is very suitable for variations and breaks for the repiques and the timba.
Playing, dancing and singing a samba reggae might just change your hair spontaneously into an afrocaribean rastalook.
Samba Carioca
Although the origins of Samba Carioca are african, everybody knows it as the rhythm of the streetparades of the Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro,
where it was born in the XIXth century. The ingredients that draw the attention are the bells and the chapas, the little tambourins and whissles
and of course the buts of the brazilian girls, moving on this quick and contagious music. This sound with lots of rhythm makes everyone
dance when they hear it. It calls up the soft climat, beauty and sensuality of the brazilian way of life.
Rumba / Mambo
The Rumba and the Mambo are cuban rhythms. The two are easy to combine, which results in an interesting and varied melody.
The Mambo became one of the most popular latin-american rhythms in the 1950's. The dance-movements are dominated by the excessive
movements of the lower part of the body. The music is a mix of latin-american music and jazz, with the characteristical moment of
silence in every beat time. In the course of time the mambo develloped into three different rhythms, the simple mambo, the double
mambo and the triple mambo. The roots of the Rumba can be found in the afro-cuban folclore. Its main characteristics are the movements
of the hips. In some parts of Cuba the music is accompanied by household-instruments like frying pans, bottles and spoons but we play
it with surdos, cajas, repiques and campanas.
Merengue
The music and dance of the Merengue have their origin in the Dominican Republic, but it´s mostly on the isles of the Antilles where one can
hear the characeristic melody, played on the tambora, the güiro and the acordeon. The music is played in a moderate speed, with a quick
pace and a 2-4 binary rhythm, and it has sections of refrains and verses. The Merengue is a typical dance for pairs. It´s most popular
writers and performers are Johnny Ventura, Félix del Rosario, Alberto Beltrán and Juan Luis Guerra.
Timbalada
Formed by Carlinhos Brown in the Candeal borough of Salvador (Bahia), Timbalada represented his desire of using the timbau
(a kind of drum indigenous of candomblé religions) in an Afro-pop-oriented way, melting rhythms of Bahia with those of
Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean origin. Also employing vocalists, the peculiar aesthetics of the group include body
painting and a multitude of pop signs that play with the contrast between tribal and industrial. The Timbalada is both
a band and a Carnaval bloco (group of merrymakers). Attracting more and more people to the Candeal borough (a very poor one)
every Sunday afternoon for their rehearsals, the Timbalada put it on Salvador's musical map. Formed in 1992,
Timbalada performed during the Carnaval in Salvador with 200 timbaus and other instruments.
Afoxé
Afoxé is not a rhythm nor a dance, it's a culture. In the carnaval of Salvador (Brazil), musical groups leave in trucks from the
Castro Alves-square and take over the city, followed by the people. The afoxés (procession of characteristic religous people that
sing the songs of the culture of Candomblé) march through the city in a parade, only accompanied by percussionists.
Cumbia
The Cumbia is a dance from african origin. It's roots are the cumbé, the typical dance of Guinea, very popular in Panama,
Venezuela, Peru and, above all, in Colombia, where it is considered a national dance together with the bambuco, the torbellino
and others. The music is played with typical instruments like the rabel (a kind of violin), the tambora and other native instruments.
The rhythm is dominated by the drum. Originally the dancers formed pairs that used to hold candles or lit torches that were offered
to their partners.
Son Cubano - Son Guatemalteco - Son Montuno
Dance and song have their roots in Cuba, although also you can find it far outside this island. It´s a mix, born around 1920,
of african, spanish and native rhythms and has numerous variations, also in every country where they play it. In some the variations
are in the forms of expression of the texts and in others for the steps of the dance that changed into something like a quick tap-dance.
The Son from Cuba characterizes for the presence of a frase with variable lenght, which is sung with one voice only.
On the other hand the Son from Guatemala (that has influences from the european Wals and the Mazurka) shows a three-beat rhythm.
Another variaty is the Son Montuno, composed in quadruple time and where the chorus intervenes two times in every solo.
The original son is played with trumpets, guitar, bass-guitar and lots of percussion-instruments like bongos, maracas, güiro and claves.
Famous authors of the Son are Miguel Matamoros, Sindo Garay and Rosendo Ruiz, but you might know better the artists that were fond
of this music, like Beny Moré, the trío Matamoros, Celia Cruz, the Habanero-septet, Antonio Machín and Abelardo Barroso.
Samba Africano
Most of the Latin-American rhythms have their origin in Africa. We honor this origin by playing perhaps the most dancable
rhythm in the world. We found the melody during a safari in the rain-forest of Zaire, where we met a small tribe that played
the drums several days without stopping, to scare the lions. Pleasant side-effect for the tourists was that the beat attracted
the gorrilla's that came dancing out of the forest so we could make some very nice pictures. Impossible to sit still on this
contagious beat.
Son Shumbera - Batukada is a samba-band from Benagalbon, Malaga (Spain).
